We Need to Talk About Paid Editing: Sorting Out Wikipedia's Most Enduring Argument

1. We Need to Talk About Paid Editing… Sorting Out Wikipedia’s Most Enduring Argument Presented by: Andrew Lih (User:Fuzheado) Christophe Henner (User:Schiste) William Beutler (User:WWB) Conference Wikimania 2014 Barbican Centre, London #wikimania2014 Date August 10, 2014

2. The Ghosts of Paid Editing Past WikiScanner, MyWikiBiz, Bell Pottinger, Wiki-PR, and how we got to where we are now 01.

3. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PAID EDITING WIKIMANIA - AUG 10, 2014 History of COI Editing Conflict-of-interest editing on Wikipedia catalogues the “greatest hits” in self-interested Wikipedia edits from the site’s early years through today

4. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PAID EDITING WIKIMANIA - AUG 10, 2014 WP:COI—the first version Fun fact: the Conflict of interest guideline was first created by an account blocked for sock puppetry... by Essjay!

5. Paid Unconflicted Unpaid Conflicted

6. Paid Unconflicted Unpaid Conflicted Passionate advocate GLAM / Like-minded institution Volunteer Wikipedian Paid advocate / consultant

7. Paid Unconflicted Unpaid Conflicted Passionate advocate • POV warrior • Booster of alma mater GLAM / Like-minded institution • Wikipedian-in-residence Volunteer Wikipedian • Seasoned editor in good standing Paid advocate / consultant • PR firm • Bright Line compliant?

8. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PAID EDITING WIKIMANIA - AUG 10, 2014 Part of the problem ¡ Everyone caught by WikiScanner – In 2006, a clever tool associated edits with IP addresses for virtually every well-known company, organization and government in the world ¡ Bell Pottinger – Well-known British PR firm caught deleting negative information from clients’ pages in 2011 ¡ Wiki-PR – Little-known US startup caught with massive sock puppet army in 2013 ¡ US Congress – They just can’t help themselves!

9. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PAID EDITING WIKIMANIA - AUG 10, 2014 Part of the solution ¡ Corporate Representatives for Ethical Wikipedia Engagement (CREWE) – Facebook group created in 2012 to foster discussion between the communications industry and the Wikipedia community ¡ Chartered Institute for Public Relations (CIPR) – UK-based trade association created a best practices guide, in cooperation with Wikimedia UK, advising companies to follow the “Bright Line”

10. “It’s imperative … that the public relations industry demonstrate by cooperation and good behavior that it can work with the Wikipedia community instead of taking the quick, easy-fix route” — Phil Gomes, Edelman Digital

11. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PAID EDITING WIKIMANIA - AUG 10, 2014 CREWE flow chart An attempt to guide communications professionals through the process of using the talk page to suggest changes to articles

12. Detail from CREWE flow chart

13. The Present Circumstances How to win friends and influence Wikipedia, Bright Line and its discontents 02.

14. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PAID EDITING WIKIMANIA - AUG 10, 2014 Adventures in Paid Editing ¡ New Media Strategies (2008–10) – First efforts to bridge gap between clients and Wikipedia – Domino’s Pizza, McAfee ¡ Beutler Wiki Relations (2010–13) – Set up shop as a consultancy to do the same – C-SPAN, Glover Park Group ¡ Beutler Ink (2013–PRESENT) – Team of 6 writer-researchers + project managers working with major US firms, writing and proposing new pages, training and coaching communications professionals – Verizon, Thunderbird School of Global Management

15. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PAID EDITING WIKIMANIA - AUG 10, 2014 Jimbo’s Bright Line ¡ Introduced in 2012 ¡ The only clearly-articulated “best practice” now operating ¡ Not a policy on English Wikipedia, but widely recognized ¡ “Focus on the edit, not the editor”? Not here

16. “I am opposed to allowing paid advocates to edit in article space at all, but am extremely supportive of [giving them] other helpful paths to assist us” — Jimmy Wales

17. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PAID EDITING WIKIMANIA - AUG 10, 2014 Donovan House Group A group of 12 digital PR leaders, Wikipedians and academics met here on February 7, 2014 to discuss issues affecting both communities

18. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PAID EDITING WIKIMANIA - AUG 10, 2014 Statement on Wikipedia from participating communications firms Not the catchiest name, or the most specific, but we’re pretty sure it’s the right one

19. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PAID EDITING WIKIMANIA - AUG 10, 2014 Key points from the statement Participating firms pledged… ¡ To seek to better understand the fundamental principles guiding Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. ¡ To act in accordance with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines, particularly those related to "conflict of interest." ¡ To abide by the Wikimedia Foundation's Terms of Use. ¡ To the extent we become aware of potential violations of Wikipedia policies by our respective firms, to investigate the matter and seek corrective action, as appropriate and consistent with our policies. ¡ Beyond our own firms, to take steps to publicize our views and counsel our clients and peers to conduct themselves accordingly.

20. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PAID EDITING WIKIMANIA - AUG 10, 2014 Participating Firms, June 2014 ¡ Beutler Ink ¡ Ogilvy & Mather ¡ FleishmanHillard ¡ Peppercomm ¡ Burson-Marsteller ¡ Ketchum ¡ Porter Novelli ¡ Voce Communications ¡ Edelman ¡ Allison+Partners ¡ Glover Park Group

21. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PAID EDITING WIKIMANIA - AUG 10, 2014 Participating Firms, Aug. 2014 ¡ Beutler Ink ¡ Ogilvy & Mather ¡ FleishmanHillard ¡ Peppercomm ¡ Burson-Marsteller ¡ Ketchum ¡ Porter Novelli ¡ Voce Communications ¡ Edelman ¡ Allison+Partners ¡ Glover Park Group ¡ Hill+Knowlton Strategies ¡ MSLGROUP ¡ Augur ¡ LEVICK ¡ RFBinder + Partners ¡ Roepke Public Relations ¡ Text100 ¡ New Venture Communications ¡ DeMoss ¡ Fahlgren Mortine ¡ Lawson Mulvihill ¡ Weber Shandwick ¡ Keene Communications ¡ Waggener Edstrom ¡ Cohn & Wolfe ¡ Finn Partners ¡ Kwittken ¡ Access Communications ¡ Golin ¡ Linhart PR ¡ Chandler Chicco Companies ¡ Citizen Relations ¡ Nereus ¡ Ruder Finn ¡ MM2 Public Relations

22. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PAID EDITING WIKIMANIA - AUG 10, 2014 Industry Coverage Plus: AdAge, Al Jazeera America, BBC, CNET, Gawker, HBR, Inc., Politico, Slate, TechDirt, The Daily Dot, The Independent, The Verge, TIME, Wall Street Journal, Wired, ZDNet... and many more!

23. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PAID EDITING WIKIMANIA - AUG 10, 2014 Industry Reaction Agencies are very interested in this; here’s an internal memo from a global firm directing its team members to follow these principles

24. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PAID EDITING WIKIMANIA - AUG 10, 2014 A French perspective ¡ Orange / France Telecom – A study case of correct company engagement ¡ How COI is dealt with on the French Wikipedia – Much simpler than you would expect from French! ¡ Yamaha – We’re pushing away free knowledge…

25. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PAID EDITING WIKIMANIA - AUG 10, 2014 CAC40 Wikipedia’s article On the French Wikipedia, even articles regarding the most important French companies are far from being good articles. Some are even just stubs

26. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PAID EDITING WIKIMANIA - AUG 10, 2014 Orange improved Orange’s article Big time. And nothing was rolled back

27. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PAID EDITING WIKIMANIA - AUG 10, 2014 On the Village Pump (le Bistro) ¡ Some editors asked questions, but these were quickly answered

28. It’s key to distinguish an edit with a COI that is purely promotional from one that is fixing a mistake.

29. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PAID EDITING WIKIMANIA - AUG 10, 2014 Yamaha wants to value its history And they put up a wiki so their community can edit it

30. Progetto Telecom Italia The first (to our knowledge) joint project between a company, a university and a local Wikimedia chapter 03.

31. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PAID EDITING WIKIMANIA - AUG 10, 2014 Who we are ¡ Wikimedia Italia Italian chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation – Frieda Brioschi (President at the time) – Cristian Consonni (Vice President at the time) ¡ Telecom Italia Leading Italian telecom operator: Telecom Italia, Tim, Tim Brazil, Sparkle, Olivetti are the Group’s main brands. – Federico Ascari (Former Corporate Communication, now Brand Development Projects) ¡ Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano Private university founded in Milan in 1920 – Nicoletta Vittadini (Associate Professor, Sociology of communication and culture)

32. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PAID EDITING WIKIMANIA - AUG 10, 2014 What we have done ¡ Training phase We organised lessons about: – Wikipedia and its policies – History of telecommunication in Italy – History of the former telco in Italy – Recent history of Telecom Italia – Wikipedia as an important business “tool” (Lundquist) – The experience of an it.wiki sysop – Visit of historical archive in Turin ¡ Editing phase Students were divided in two groups who edited: – Telecom Italia articles in Italian and English – Related articles

33. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PAID EDITING WIKIMANIA - AUG 10, 2014 The project Who was involved and why A group of six university students chose the project for their final bachelor dissertation • Completing and extending articles that refer to Telecom Italia on Wikipedia • Enriching these articles with external sources but with sources by Telecom Italia historical archive too (1) Valentina Frigato (Valentina F.) (2) Snowdrop (Giulia) (3) Chiarada91 (Chiara) (4) Vale14orla (Valentina O.) (5) Kate Riddle (Eleonora) (6) Valeria Sorrenti (Valeria)

34. “Be transparent and this project will work well!” — Mono the monkey

35. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PAID EDITING WIKIMANIA - AUG 10, 2014 How we avoid NNPOV ¡ Being transparent! (i.e. following the «Paid editing guidelines» before they even existed) – The students had a template in their user page – When updating pages they left a message in the talk page before starting to modify – Two peer review processes were requested ¡ “Gated” approach Company → Students → Wikipedia Wikimedians

36. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PAID EDITING WIKIMANIA - AUG 10, 2014 Outcomes ¡ Results – Mapping Telecom Italia presence on Wikipedia – Benchmarking of articles about other telcos – ~ 200 new references (100 in Telecom Italia article) – ~ 20 images uploaded – 2 new articles written – 2 articles peer reviewed (Telecom Italia and STIPEL) – ~ 650 total edits on articles ¡ Things to watch out for – Scale can be hard to reach (i.e. more students, more articles, more companies) – Explain that a Wikipedia article is not a Facebook page – Expect interactions to follow the corporate style Ar$cles in Italian involved: Telecom Italia, Telve, Set, S$pel, Te$, Telecom Argen$na, Tim Brasil, Franco Bernabè e Marco Patuano. Ar$cle in English involved: Telecom Italia

37. The Future of Whatever We Decide to Call It Beyond Donovan House and CIPR 04.

38. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PAID EDITING WIKIMANIA - AUG 10, 2014 Coming in September 2014

39. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PAID EDITING WIKIMANIA - AUG 10, 2014 A professional guide —Where Wikipedia is coming from —Why to follow these rules —How to set up an account —How to ask for help —Troubleshooting common issues —Creating a company policy —Guidelines + glossary

40. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PAID EDITING WIKIMANIA - AUG 10, 2014 Language is part of the problem ¡ On the Wikipedia side… – Conflict of interest (COI) – Paid editing – Paid advocacy ¡ On the industry side… – Public relations – Marketing – Marcomms – Communications ¡ We need a better vocabulary

41. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PAID EDITING WIKIMANIA - AUG 10, 2014 Where do we go from here? ¡ Toward a more professional Wikipedia? ¡ Will there ever be an official policy? ¡ WMF of Content Creation? ¡ OTRS of Content Triage? ¡ Relationship to GLAM?

42. Thanks, Wikimania 2014!